America’s largest free arts festival, Artscape, is happening this weekend in Baltimore! From fine arts and sculpture to music and fashion design, this festival is a true celebration of all forms of artistic expression.

If you’re attending Artscape, be sure to visit the Aquarium’s outreach staff in the Kidscape tent and make your very own turtle magnet out of recycled bottle caps!

If you can’t make it down to the festival this weekend, you can still celebrate the arts at home with this ocean-inspired art project:

Materials

Paper

Markers

Scissors/exacto knife

Glue stick or clear tape

An old magazine

Instructions

Draw the outline for your sea creature. It works best if you make your aquatic friend big enough so that it can be cut out easily.

Cut out the outline of your animal and decorate it!

Cut out colorful strips of paper from your old magazine.

Cut 4-5 horizontal slits along the animal’s body.

Thread the magazine strips through the slits in the animal’s body (over-under for the first strip, under-over for the one next to it, and so on, or however you’d like). It helps keep the magazine paper in place if you glue or tape the end down before you start to weave.

Weave as many strips of magazine paper as you’d like, and enjoy your new piece of ocean art!

Have a favorite recycled/ocean-inspired art project? Share it with me in the comments section!